MIT 4.651 ART SINCE 1940
LECTURE NOTES
Caroline A. Jones
Week 11: SEVENTIES PLURALISM, cont.
Lecture 19, Performance / Intervention
key decade: 1970s
terms: Process Art, Performance Art
I. From Happenings to Performance, 60s to 70s (to now)
A table of non-parallel points
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980+
contexts,
stimuli
photos of Pollock ptg.
John Cage 1958 class
Julian Beck Living Thtr.
Artaud “Theatre of
Cruelty”
Protests, “Be-Ins”
Judson Dance Gp.
Living Theater, cont.
Phenomenology
Media theory (McLuhan)
institutional critique
Museum politics
Feminism
Identity politics
Black Power
AIDS
Stonewall, Gay activism
Post-struct. subject theory
what they
called it
“Happenings”
and Environments
“Happenings” &
Environments
“Performance Art”
Site-specific art
“Body Art”
Performance Art
Installation
who &
where
Cage, Kaprow
Beats (NY, SF)
Gutai
informels (Mathieu)
Yves Klein
Rauschenberg, Judson
Minimals: Morris
Pops: Oldenburg, Dine
early feminists Ono,
Schneemann
Fluxus: Brecht, Paik
Vienna Actionists
(also V. Export)
Fluxus cont.
“Womanhse” (LA)
individuals:
Acconci
Schneemann
Burden
Beuys
Long
Oiticica
Individuals in
performance,
Collaboratives
in installation
II. Differences:
A. 50s and early 60s performances split
1) between a cool, cerebral “abstracting” mode (Brecht, Robert Morris)
2) and a wildly theatrical sensual mode (Happenings, Oldenburg, some Kaprow
B. 70s performance art was
1) edgier, more violent, more confrontational, more culturally political (sex & religion)
2) and demanded viewer acknowledge complicity
MIT 4.651 ART SINCE 1940
LECTURE NOTES
Caroline A. Jones
C. 80s+ performance art tended to emphasize labor, endurance, and a body critique of museums
III. Trans-national phenomenon?
A. Documentation of performance art traveled swiftly, internationally
B. Practitioners were eager to join forces with other avant-gardes (e.g., Schneeman’s
“Meat Joy” at the Paris Festival of Free Expression, Fluxus internationalism)
C. But there were strong national specificities (e.g. violent comedy of Vienna Actionists)
SELECTED IMAGES
seen before:
Old enburg, Foto -Dea th, 1962 (NY)
Paik, Zen for Head, 1962 (W eisbaden)
Bre cht, Three A queous E vents 1963 (Flux us, NY)
Ono, Cut Piece 1964 (K yoto, New York, Lond on)
Kubota, Vagina Painting, 1964 (NY)
Schn eeman, Meat Joy 1964 (Paris, NY)
Long, Hundred-M ile W alk, 1971-2 (UK)
Matta-Clark, Splitting 1974 (Englewood, NJ)
New York/LA:
Schn eeman, Fluxus Statement, 1964
Schn eeman, Interior Scro ll, 1975 (NY)
Acconci, Tradem arks 1970 (NY)
Acconci, Seedbed, 1972 (NY)
Burden, Shoot, November 19, 1971(LA)
Burden, Trans-fixed, April 23, 1974 (LA)
Burden, Doorway to Heaven, November 15, 1973 (LA)
Germany:
on w eb, im portant: Beuys, How to E xplain Pictures to a Dead Hare 196 5 (D usseldorf)
Beuys, C oyo te : I L ik e A me ric a and Americ a Likes M e, 1974 (NY)
Vienn a Action ists:
Nitsch, Actions #48, Orgy-Mystery Theater 1970s? (Vienna)
Schw arzko gler, Action 1965
W eibel (a nd V alie Ex port), Tapp und Tastkino, 1968 (Vienna?)
Exp ort, Genital Panic 1969
South America and nomad ic:
Oiticica, Parango lé, 1965 (São Paolo museum)
Oiticica, Tropicalia, 196 5, 19 69 (São Pao lo, Londo n, and posthumo usly)
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4.651 Art Since 1940
Fall 2010
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